After months of speculation and two oversized issues' worth of buildup, Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo's Dark Nights: Metal is finally here. Promising ear-bleeding action and teeth-rattling twists, Metal flips the script on DC's cosmology with an invasion from the Dark Multiverse.

RELATED: Dark Nights: Metal #1 Ends with a Jaw-Dropping Return

We covered eight(ish) pages' worth of this issue back in July, and while our predictions weren't quite accurate, we still feel pretty good about ourselves. Accordingly, we'll be referring back to that post (as well as our analyses of Dark Days: The Forge and Dark Days: The Casting) from time to time. Dark Nights: Metal issue 1 was written by Scott Snyder, pencilled by Greg Capullo, inked by Jonathan Glapion, colored by FCO Plascencia, and lettered by Steve Wands. Eddie Berganza and Rebecca Taylor edited the issue, with Dave Wielgosz as associate editor.

Now, grab your copy of Metal's first issue, settle in, and follow along!


Despite Batman's reference to a "war moon," we're pretty confident that the Justice League is aboard the latest version of Mongul's Warworld. The "fight with General Zod" was a one-punch affair from September 2017's Action Comics #984. Frustrated with Zod's leadership, Mongul challenged the Kryptonian tyrant only to find himself launched forcibly into orbit. From that point we presume that he was captured and turned over to the people of Braal.

Speaking of which, Braal was first mentioned in April 1958's Adventure Comics #247, in connection with its most famous native, Rokk "Cosmic Boy" Krinn of the far-future Legion of Super-Heroes. A text feature on the letters page of January 1967's Adventure #352 may be of special interest to us, since it describes Braal's "whole species of animals of living metal," some of which are "monstrous" and "very dangerous." In response, the humans of Braal developed magnetic powers which "enable[d] them to attract or repel certain metals, such as iron and nickel." We're not sure why the present-day Braalians took custody of Mongul, but we wouldn't be surprised to see them later on in this miniseries.

Although we speculated that Mongul's guest was Billy Batson, it's really Hiro "Toyman" Okamura, created by Jeph Loeb and Ed McGuinness and first appearing in February 2002's Superman vol. 2 issue 177. Among other things, Hiro designed a giant robot in the shape of a composite Superman and Batman, so creating metal super-mechs isn't that much of a stretch. Also, we still think this sequence is a good spiritual successor to August 1962's "Riddle of the Robot Justice League" from Justice League of America #13. In familiar Silver Age style, Hiro's mechs are "built to [the Leaguers'] specifications; and just as Aquaman's sideline coaching saved his teammates in that story, Hiro's foresight contributed to the League's victory.

While this may be the first Justice League Voltron sequence, it's not the first "giant robot JLA" story. Besides the composite Superman/Batman mech from March 2004's Superman/Batman issue #6, there was December 2005-January 2006's two-issue miniseries JLA Classified: Cold Steel, in which the Leaguers donned massive battlesuits to fight a war in deep space. The first arc in JLA Classified (issues 1-3, January-March 2005) also featured robot duplicates of the Leaguers.

We were also right about the Leaguers' armors sapping their powers. Mongul mentions the Dominators, now familiar to CW viewers everywhere, who were created by Jim Shooter, Curt Swan and Jim Mooney and first appeared in October 1967's Adventure Comics #361. Stheno is the oldest of the three Gorgons, female monsters with snakes for hair. She and her sister Eurayle are immortal, while Medousa (who Wonder Woman killed back in January 2005's Wonder Woman #210) was mortal. Stheno and Eurayle have appeared in DC books before, with Eurayle first appearing in December 1988's Wonder Woman issue 23 and Stheno making her DC debut in June 1994's Sandman (hmmm...) issue 60. All three Gorgons appeared in the Greg Rucka-written run which included Medousa's death. We're not quite sure what a "Cassandra engine" is, but Wonder Woman's dialogue suggests that it predicts and counters all of her fighting strategies.

Wonder Woman might have been inspired to name her "Aegea Formation" after an Amazonian queen who (according to Wikipedia) led her army from Libya to Asia Minor on their way to fight at Troy. We're not sure where "Iphto formation" comes from, but we know Google thinks it's "iPhoto."

As the helpful footnote on page 7 suggests, the reference to Aquaman's "old harpoon hand" is indeed to the appendage he got 'round about the time of October 1994's Aquaman issue 0. It lasted in one form or another through the end of that particular series, January 2001's issue 75. The New 52 Aquaman never had a harpoon hand, demonstrating further that pre-Flashpoint continuity is reasserting itself.

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Misty Mountain Hop (Pages 11-14)

Challengers Mountain returns
The Justice League investigates Challengers Mountain, from "Dark Nights: Metal" #1

It's no exaggeration to say (on Page 11) that Batman's "been going through a lot lately." Across the three main Bat-books he's lost a sidekick (Tim "Red Robin" Drake in Detective Comics), lost another potential sidekick and returned a third to sanity (Gotham and Gotham Girl in Batman), proposed to Catwoman (Batman again) and been chased across the country and around the world (All Star Batman). It reminds us of that bit in February 1998's Avengers issue 1 when Spider-Man begs off a mission because he's "kinda up to [his] neck in what feels like five different things at once."

As we said in the preview, this is Challengers Mountain, relocated with not as much fuss as you'd think to Gotham City. Naturally Green Lantern detects the same kind of energy as he did in the Batcave in the two Dark Days issues. Also naturally, Cyborg's research calls the hourglass symbol "unknown" because it stands for the Challengers of the Unknown. It's like when that certain Adam or Stephen says "my name is strange," because it is.

The five people in the C-Pod are most likely the five Challengers: "Prof" Haley, June Robbins, Rocky Davis, Red Ryan and Ace Morgan. Created by Jack Kirby with Dave Wood and/or Joe Simon, almost everybody first appeared in January/February 1957's Showcase issue 6, with June coming along in March/April's issue 7. We know from the Dark Days issues that the Challs went into another dimension looking for details about Nth Metal, and now they're back (albeit cryogenically preserved).

Given the return of so much pre-Flashpoint continuity, we're a little surprised that nobody recognizes Red Tornado. Still, as we pointed out in the preview annotations, the only New 52 Reddy was on Earth-2.

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Back In Black (Pages 15-21)

Blackhawk Island, from JSA #11
The JSA infiltrates Blackhawk Island, from "JSA" #11 by David Goyer, James Robinson, Stephen Sadowski and Michael Bair

Page 15 reveals that Lady Blackhawk is now the head of the Blackhawks, whom Batman describes as a "covert anti-apocalyptic team." This could well apply to the New 52 Blackhawks, which operated mostly behind the scenes; but these Blackhawks don't seem to be an outgrowth of their New 52 predecessors.

Kendra Saunders was created by David Goyer and James Robinson and first appeared in August 1999's JSA Secret Files issue 1, in a story pencilled by Scott Benefiel and inked by Mark Propst. Like Red Tornado, her New 52 version showed up on Earth-2. Here, once again she's Chay-Ara's latest reincarnation, and therefore closer to the pre-Flashpoint original. On Page 21 she mentions that she's "destroyed [her] wings," but it's not clear how much of a Hawkgirl career she had (specifically as Kendra), since she's evidently spent so much time with the Blackhawks.

When Blackhawk Island was introduced in August 1941's Military Comics issue 1, it was somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean. As the Blackhawks joined the fight against the Japanese, though, they moved their headquarters to the Pacific, as evidenced by June 1951's Blackhawk issue 41 and June 2000's JSA issue 11. Now Metal establishes that Blackhawk Island was Carter Hall's "base of operations," and was presumably home to the Blackhawks as well.

For some reason there are dinosaurs on Carter's Blackhawk Island, but going by Lady Blackhawk's exposition this isn't the Dinosaur Island from the so-called "War That Time Forgot." That Dinosaur Island first appeared in April-May 1960's Star-Spangled War Stories issue 90, in a story by Bob Kanigher, Ross Andru and Mike Esposito. The "WTTF" – an appropriate abbreviation, we think – then became a regular feature in SSWS for the next eight years, through February-March 1968's issue 137. After that it popped up here and there in DC's war comics, as well as in Timothy Truman's 1998 miniseries Guns of the Dragon and Darwyn Cooke's New Frontier (2003). Most recently, Superman and Superboy visited Dinosaur Island in December 2016's Superman issues 8-9.

(Of course, none of these are to be confused with Ape Island, which is home to giant apes, or Candy Apple Island, which also has apes, but they're not so big.)

There are also dinosaurs in the otherdimensional world of Skartaris, created by Mike Grell for November 1975's 1st Issue Special issue 8 as the setting of his long-running feature The Warlord. The "Arrow" TV series has given Nanda Parbat a lot of mainstream exposure; but it started out in October 1967's Strange Adventures issue 205 as the mystical realm of Rama Kushna. Thanks to creators Arnold Drake and Carmine Infantino, Rama turned the late Boston Brand into the ghostly Deadman.

Lady Blackhawk refers back to her and Carter being "stabbed with a dagger of a mysterious substance," which may well be the Dagger of Shazam made of Nth Metal seen in Dark Days: The Casting. (We remind you that the first Hawkman story in January 1940's Flash Comics issue 1 was weirdly specific about the dagger being glass.) Again, this is the classic Hawkman/Hawkgirl joint origin, which suggests that Carter Hall isn't the New 52 Hawkman, who may not have recovered yet from the Death of Hawkman miniseries.

So just to make sure we've got this straight, Nth Metal broadcasts a "strange kind of energy," and it's the same energy coming off of the newly-returned Challengers Mountain and encountered in the Batcave.

The Hawks and the Challengers
Hawkman and Hawkgirl supervise the Challengers of the Unknown

Page 18 reveals that Carter recruited a small army of adventurers, including the original Blackhawks, the Will Payton Starman, T.O. Morrow (and his creation Red Tornado) and Will Magnus, and the Challengers of the Unknown. We covered their respective backgrounds in the preview annotations, and so far it doesn't seem like Carter/Hawkman had any meaningful effect on their traditional origins. However, since T.O. Morrow was part of the New 52 Cyborg's development, you'd think Vic would recognize his photo.

Likewise, Page 19 doesn't tell us much more than we sussed out from the preview. Kendra and the Flash confirm that the Multiverse contains exactly 52 parallel universes, so the Nth Metal energy has to come from the "other side" of the map.

Red Tornado's reference to a "great dragon" reminds us of the "great red dragon" described in Revelation 12: 3-4 (King James Version). It had "seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth." This isn't Kingdom Come, so we're not veering off into Bible study; but the dragon turns out to be Satan (spoilers!), and is defeated ultimately by an army of angels. Moreover, the mysterious woman from earlier in Revelation 12 receives "two wings of a great eagle" (verse 14) so that she can get away from the dragon. Let's put a pin in that for now.

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Barbados is Bat, and There's Gonna Be Trouble

We covered Barbatos in the Casting annotations. Set is the Egyptian god of the desert who killed his brother Osiris and fought against Apep, the serpent of Chaos. Set has a long snout and long ears, a forked tail, and either a canine or humanoid body. He is the father of Anubis, god of the dead; and his parents are the sky goddess Nut and the earth god Geb. Set's main rival is the falcon-headed Horus, god of the sky. The Rabisu, or Rabasa, was an ancient Mesopotamian demon which lurked in dark corners and around the entrances of houses, waiting to pounce on its prey.

Artifacts in 'Dark Days: The Forge'
Familiar artifacts in the Batcave, from 'Dark Days: The Forge'

Kendra mentions "someone treated with five divine metals," and we think Batman's been exposed to all of them. Dionesium healed him and the Joker between the events of Snyder and Capullo's "Endgame" and "Superheavy" arcs. The Sunblade which he got from Wonder Woman in The Casting was made of Eighth Metal. The Court of Owls used Electrum, specifically in its Talons' dental implants. Artifacts in the Batcave included Doctor Fate's helmet, an Atlantean-style trident, and Amazonian bracers (made, we presume, of Amazonium). That's at least four different mystical metals, plus the Nth Metal shard Batman grabs this issue. Add in the "hero whose nightmares it collects as its army," and you've got a recipe for disaster even before Kendra gets to the etymology lesson. Yes, "Wayne" is derived from the Old English "waegn," for "wagon" or "wagon maker."

Speaking of which, the Blackhawks know Batman's secret identity and nobody seems to care? They're all friends now, we suppose.

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The Lizard King (Pages 22-24)

Living the dream
Batman rides a dinosaur in "Dark Nights: Metal" #1 by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo

Page 22 is not the first time the Red Tornado has gone berserk. Other notable instances include his early appearances as the Tornado Tyrant (incorporated into Reddy's origins in August 1981's Justice League of America issue 193), his creation by T.O. Morrow as a weapon to destroy the JLA and JSA (September 1968's Justice League of America issue 65 and July 1981's issue 192), and his corruption by the Anti-Monitor in August 1985's Crisis On Infinite Earths issue 5 and Justice League of America Annual issue 3. Still, here it only takes Green Lantern to stop Reddy.

The sight of Batman riding a dinosaur on Page 23 has to be the subject of at least one convention sketch. Certainly it epitomizes the all-out gonzo feel Snyder and Capullo have been promising (not that we're complaining). At least for now, it also pays off our old friend the lizard, running through the desert with the bat-creature close behind. Since we forgot to mention it earlier, DC's first "Dinosaur Island" was an amusement park from June 1946's Batman issue 35. No points for guessing that it gave the world the Batcave's iconic robot Tyrannosaurus.

Page 24 gives us Doctor Fate himself, plus the so-called "Dark Knights" of the Dark Multiverse, as well as Plastic Man (last seen in Dark Days: The Forge. We're not sure how to reconcile this Doctor Fate with the helmet in the Batcave, except that there may be more than one helmet kicking around the Multiverse. For example, the Doctor Fate of Earth-2 received the Helmet of Nabu while on a dig with the Earth-2 Kendra Saunders (in April 2013's Earth 2 issue 9).

The other talking head looks like Steel, a/k/a John Henry Irons, who was created by Louise Simonson and Jon Bogdanove. John Henry first appeared in Early June 1993's Adventures of Superman issue 500 before debuting in earnest in July 1993's Superman: The Man Of Steel issue 23. Since Carter's narration talks about "those attuned to the power of Nth Metal," we're curious to see how it affects John Henry's super-suit.

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Enter Sandman (Pages 25-28)

Without getting into the weeds of geology and/or planetary formation, apparently it's possible for an Earth-like planet to form using heavier metals than those found in the core of the Earth itself. For our purposes, this goes along with Batman's supposition that heavy-metal planets like Braal might have been better able to detect something like a Challengers Mountain popping back into existence. Of course, Batman wants to "protect everyone," because we all know that nothing bad could happen with that attitude.

JLA and Dream vs. IT
Dream and the Justice League take down "IT," from "JLA" #23 by Grant Morrison, Howard Porter and John Dell

Page 26 gives us a triptych of references. Back in Dark Days: The Forge we saw the Monitor's tuning fork from 1985's Crisis On Infinite Earths and 2005-06's Infinite Crisis. The "final moment of crisis" is a none-too-subtle shout-out to 2008-09's Final Crisis. It accompanies a shot of a crashed spaceship, which doesn't look that much like the crashed Thanagarian starship from The Forge. Instead, it could be part of whatever made Vandal Savage and Immortal Man so long-lived. The grandfather clock is most likely the stopped clock in Wayne Manor's study, which opens to the Batcave when set to a particular time. Here it's at 9:58, supposedly around the time of night when Thomas and Martha Wayne were killed.

On Page 27, Carter explains that the Waynes "turned from Tribe Bat to Tribe Bird," but it's not clear whether they represent the conversion of the entire Bat tribe. (That would be ironic in light of the Court of Owls.) Conveniently, Carter's diary shows itself with a version of the Bat-Signal.

Finally, boom goes the dynamite as Batman comes face-to-face with Daniel, a/k/a Dream of the Endless. Daniel Hall was created by Neil Gaiman and first appeared in January 1991's Sandman issue 22, which was drawn by Kelley Jones and Malcolm Jones III. He became Dream in August 1995's issue 70, drawn by Michael Zulli. In September 1995's issue 71, dream-versions of Batman, Martian Manhunter and Clark Kent attended a wake for the previous Dream (Morpheus). Daniel then guest-starred in September-October 1998's JLA issues 22-23 (written by Grant Morrison, pencilled by Howard Porter and inked by John Dell), to help the Justice League fend off a dream-facilitated invasion by the Star Conqueror.

He also popped up in August 1999's JSA issue 1, and this is where it gets interesting. See, Daniel was born in the Dreamtime, so Morpheus claimed him as his own. This didn't sit well with Daniel's mother Lyta Hall, once the superhero called Fury. Lyta was married to Hector Hall, another ex-superhero named Silver Scarab. Upon his death Hector entered the so-called "Dream Dimension" and became the superhero called Sandman. (Jack Kirby created this version of the Sandman for a short-lived 1974-76 series, and DC's Kirby centennial includes a Sandman special. ) This turned out to be an elaborate ruse which Morpheus eventually destroyed. However, it's all come full circle, because Hector's dad was Carter "Hawkman" Hall. Thus, the current Lord of Dreams is getting ready to help Batman plumb the depths of his grandfather's research – and after all this time, Hawkman's convoluted backstory has paid off handsomely!

What else did you see in the first issue of Dark Nights: Metal? Let us know in the comments!